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placeinthemiddleofnowhere · 11 months ago

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The Devil You Know (Part 1) - The First Sin

Pairing: Demon! Captain John Price x Reader

(No use of y/n)

Warnings: This series will contain scenes of a violent and sexual nature, I will be more specific as I write more parts.

Summary: Reader is a soldier hanging on to their last gasp of life, trying to summon a demon associated with soldiers and battlefields in order to aid them. Unluckily for you though, the demon isn't interested in a short term deal. He finds himself quite attached to you, and he doesn't want to let you go.

-🔥-

Disembodied hands shook wildly as they set about their terrible task. At least that’s how it seemed to you - appendages moving around a blurred screen, drawing dirtied red symbols with panicked uncertainty. You swiped another slick fingerful of your blood into the dusty concrete and clenched your aching teeth together, finishing off the last curve of the sigil with a snakish hiss.

“I call to you…with the blood of my battle wounds. Jo- Jotan, I will be your willing servant.”

You looked around, eyes darting wildly for movement or any sign that your ridiculous little saving grace had worked. Though nothing happened. You blinked feverishly, feeling your lip wobble at first and then your entire body shake as you absorbed the facts in front of you. You were actually going to die.

A cackle broke out into the room, competing with the baying gunshots outside to break the walls of the decaying shell of a building. It was you. You were finally losing your mind, absorbing the facts in front of you with detached horror.

Perhaps the ruins were an office before, but now it was the final resting place of a desperate lunatic who’d decided to decorate their sepulchre before laughing themselves into death’s arms. The cruelty of it burned in your throat and stang at your eyes, soon searing hot tears into the ruined flesh of your cheeks.

It was a foolish last ditch effort anyway, you mused, collapsing onto your back in the middle of the blood seal. A stupid myth you’d clung to in a final attempt to save your life, a ritual told to you by someone that was long dead themself. If they presumably hadn’t bothered to use it, then why would it do you any good?

“Oh dear…I’m not too late am I?” cooed a soft rumbling voice.

Your eyes opened wide, the owner of the call demanding to be seen. That murmur fizzled in your ears and vibrated in your blood, forcing your hands to scrabble at the ground and set you into a sitting position again.

When you finally rose, you were held in place by the stranger. His onyx black eyes pinned you into place, watching you twitching and panting like a caught mouse. Apparently you amused him with this. His lips pulled into a grin, revealing a row of white teeth that curved into points at the canines and outer incisors, it was the smile of a predator. As if he needed to advertise any more warning signs.

His body was big and broad, his chest a large plane of solid flesh dusted with soot and soft dark hair that matched his bristly beard and hickory hued hair. His large arms were decorated with similar etchings to the ones you’d messily painted, both of them circled in two iron bands at the bicep and forearms, they looked like they could crack teeth in a pinch. There were also a few bands on the thick dark tail that waved behind him too, a detail you only noticed as it seemed to lovingly caress the shadows around his legs.

It was what finally confirmed for you that this was him. The fabled demon of battlefields - Jotan.

“You came,” you whispered.

“You called,” he returned, tilting his head at you. ��Surprised you managed to complete the circle. You’ve lost a lot of blood, Sergeant.”

“I…I have,” you replied, feeling another wave of nausea roll through you.

“And I suppose you want me to do something about that?” he said, mouth twisting into a wry half smile.

It was almost worse than when you’d seen his fanged teeth. He looked positively ready to devour you, his gleaming eyes fixed on you like a tiger. You were just waiting for him to pounce, breath catching in your dry throat as you anticipated the killing bite. Suddenly you’d forgotten that it was you that called the terrible entity here, that he was supposed to be serving you rather than terrifying you.

“C’mon now, Love. You clearly knew enough about the ritual to get me here…aren’t you going to follow through?” he prompted, leaning down to meet you at your level. “It’s rude to keep a demon waiting, you know.”

His arms folded over his dark trousers, crossing over each other at his lap as if he were asking you to do something so completely mundane. He tilted his head at you again, flicking his eyes up to the doorway on the other side of the room as it started to shudder and bang. Voices were worming their way through the debris, shouts blasting in through the cracks.

Bang, bang, bang.

You didn’t have much time. Not that your body would be able to hold on much longer anyway.

“I want you to- please…take me back to exfil. Get me the fuck out of here and safely back to base and I’ll do whatever you want,” you said, voice cracking as you made your plea. “Ask anything you want from me, Jotan. Just get me the fuck away from here.”

His eyes curved into shadowed moons, once again he beamed at you. It felt like the stifling room heated a few more degrees. To add insult to injury your lungs began to struggle, it felt like your body was in its last stages of failing.

You briefly wondered if all this just might be a delusion. Maybe your head was presenting you with him as a way to cope with being turned to pink mist by the men that still called from the door outside, as a way to forget about your torn up arms that’d been sliced open by the bombings, and the bullet hole that had been weeping silently in your leg.

Bang, bang, bang.

“I’ll tell you what…I’m feelin’ generous,” the demon murmured, reaching out and forcing your chin up with in his charred fingers. “I’ll take you back to base, just like you want. And now…I could ask for your soul in return, for you to be my eternal servant when you do meet your end, and I really could have you do anything for me. However I won’t do that. Instead, I want to lend you my power. Just for today. That is my only offer.”

You frowned, a million racing thoughts crashing through your mind all at the same time. You’d made peace with the fact he’d ask for something awful, known it even. This clearly had to be a trick. Nevertheless, your head throbbed perilously and the door and furniture you’d messily propped in front of it were going to give way.You didn't have much time.

Bang, bang, bang.

“What will I do with your power?” you asked desperately, looking from him and to the end of the room.

“Let me worry about that,” he chuckled. “I’ll guide you, Sergeant. All you have to do is agree…that or let them flood in and kill you.”

Bang, bang, bang.

He motioned to the thundering door and raised his brows at you. At that point his dark eyes were like vortexes, they dragged you into his orbit and had you falling under his spell. You knew logically that whatever was going to happen was going to change the course of your life forever - and not for the good. Even then, you couldn’t find the strength to deny him, couldn’t hold enough faith in a glorious next life to accept that you’d leave this one.

“Fine! I accept,” you said, eyes wet and heavy.

An animal growl rattled through your bones and shuddered throughout the skeleton remains of the office space. Your body flinched back, responding just as your instincts wanted, but the demon didn’t allow you to retreat. He was quick - arms lashing out and moving like a whip. He gripped your neck like a farmer does to his chickens come dinner time, and just when you were ready for the snap, your body jerked violently.

You forced yourself to your feet, no, you surged upwards like you were under possession. Your legs didn’t feel like they’d buckle anymore, they felt renewed. Your heartbeat was steady like a punctual train, and your breathing returned to normal, better than normal even. Everything in you felt like it was new, like someone had taken out your broken parts and given you an upgrade. You smiled, lips curling over your teeth unnaturally.

Wait- were those…fangs poking into your bottom lip?

Bang!

There was no time to wonder at the strange way your mouth felt. Your head jerked up and suddenly you were greeted with the second worst sight of the day. The enemy soldiers had you surrounded, they flooded into the room like a locust swarm and pointed their guns at you, faithfully looking toward their Captain for the authority to execute.

Normally you would’ve shuddered, or maybe even fallen to the floor, but you held fast. Your breathing remained calm, but your vision went dark. That’s not to say you passed out, but a thick hazy filter seemed to descend across your eyes. Then just when you were about to question it, your arms reached out as if you were being puppeteered and your entire body unwillingly shot forward.

There was no time to even think to connect your actions to the seemingly absent demon then. Instead you latched onto the soldier in front of you like a bear and sank your teeth into his neck. The man screamed, and yelped, and made all sorts of inhuman noises as he struggled to try and pull you off. Though there was no helping him. You continued to bite at his arteries and savage him until his screams were silent and overtaken by the men around him.

Gunshots rang out, but none pierced you. Men beat at your back and pulled at your arms, but you didn’t break your hold. Copper filled your mouth, but you didn’t spit. You smiled with glee and licked at your own salty tears, disengaging from your target only when you were ready.

Little did you know, this was only the beginning of the butchery.

-🔥-

“For fuck sake, get yersel’ to the sink ye riot!”

You jumped out of your thoughts and hazarded a quick look up to your worried manager, following that up by nodding silently and running off to the bathroom. Fuck. All that you could do was grimly stare down at the blood while it merged with the clean tap water and remind yourself that it was fine. You weren’t outside the wire anymore, you were just wait staff in a small restaurant, and you didn’t need to worry about bleeding out anymore because the biggest hazard you faced now was apparently picking up a dirty knife the wrong way.

“Fucking hell,” you chuckled, quietly facing yourself in the mirror and taking a pause from the gory scene below. “It’s just a tiny cut.”

For a second, so quick you only just registered it, black eyes flashed behind you. You jumped back and hyperventilated, doing everything you could to stop yourself from screaming. Though it couldn’t be helped. You forced your hands over your mouth and yelled a muffled cry into your palms instead and rode out your panicked heartbeats until you could be sure you wouldn’t collapse.

You did a double take, searching the mirror for those horrible eyes or any other signs of their proprietor. However, there was nothing else to see but a pathetic ex soldier, black tile and cheap imitation herringbone wood flooring. Suddenly you felt absolutely ridiculous.

You slipped your hands from your mouth and covered your eyes instead, rubbing at hideously embarrassing tears with anger. That stupid therapist you were going to was so wrong, you thought bitterly, you were never going to make progress. You constantly swore that you could see those demonic eyes wherever you went, and sometimes you even thought you saw him. Well not the demon exactly, but a man that so closely resembled him - just without the tail and black eyes.

It’d been a full year since you’d been honourably discharged from the military, and even in all that time, you still hadn’t healed. Sure, the cuts and bullet wounds had made miraculous progress and faded to tiny scars, but inside you may as well have been a shooting range dummy right at the end of target practice. While your superiors had seen fit to dedicate you with a medal for the miraculous fight you put up against the enemy, your head still hadn’t gotten to grips with just how you did it.

Multiple therapists had put it down to repressed memory. They told you that whatever had really happened must’ve been replaced with that accursed demon summoning ritual that you dreamed up in an adrenaline filled haze. They said you might remember it all eventually once you’d healed more, or even that you might never get the answers you sought. There was no footage from your vest cam, and no other eyewitnesses left alive to say what had happened. Just you and your janky, wacky memories.

“Hey, Riot! You gonna come back on shift anytime soon or do I have to explain to Marco why the big bad ex-soldier is dying over a little cut?”

You turned to the door and smiled to yourself, feeling your chest grow lighter the second you heard that voice. Emily always knew how to pull you out of a funk. With that in mind, you shook your head, felt your goosebumps retreat away and stepped out into the scorching warmth of the restaurant. Once more back into the fray.

“The big bad ex-soldier had a lot of blood coming out that little cut,” you shrugged, “can’t be creating a healthcode violation, you know that.”

Emily raised one of her thick dark eyebrows in question and put her hands on her hips. Oh no, this was the serious stance. In fairness, the tables were mobbed that night and she’d been run off her feet by two difficult tables that were ‘not getting acceptable service by any definition of the word’ as one of them had apparently said.

“Put a blue plaster on it and get back out here before I give you a real war wound,” she growled.

Your eyes widened, but you still smiled despite yourself.

“You’re the boss!”

You rushed off to do as she said, ready to come back out and assist her, and if necessary neutralise any threat to her sanity. Emily was one of the few people you’d reconnected with after coming back home, and anyone that messed with her henceforth, was now messing with you.

She’d seen you out and about at the park one day, taking one of your ‘haunted walks’ as she called them - only because you had trouble sleeping and would walk around in a black hoodie with the hood up. It was like something clicked, after being so reluctant to share anything with your family, or military buddies that tried to reach out, it was like you’d found your key. You’d babbled to her about how badly you were struggling to adjust to civilian life, leaking your frustrations like a bled radiator, and she accepted you. She listened without pity.

Now while you wound a plaster round your silly little cut, you watched her zoom round the tables with true gratitude. She was the only reason you’d gotten the job, and been able to integrate back into real life. As much as you had your moments of frustrations, and had brief run ins with your PTSD, you at least had something to distract yourself with. Something that grabbed your attention and set your breathing straight again, when before you would curl in the corner of your room and scream for many minutes at a time.

Once the plaster was affixed, you fiddled with the cracked old first aid box and wrangled it shut, stowing it back into place with a thud before rushing back out to the floor. The smell of garlic and pasta filled your senses, and the voices of the patrons roared rapturously in your ears again. The normal hustle and bustle of the place set you back into your rhythm and the ramped up tempo sent you hurtling toward the kitchen.

“Where’ve you fucking been?” one of the chefs groused, “we’ve got a million plates for table ten here that need serving! I can hear them bitching from here, get moving!”

“Had a little accident getting the plates to Frankie,” you said, motioning to the plaster and your fraught KP behind the pass. “Good to go now!”

Rather than stay to hear the chef's curses, you rushed off with the plates and delivered them to the table, plastering on a smile as the customers moaned up a storm to your face. After offering them your apologies and promises of free sides, they hushed up and all was good again. You tended to your other tables and resumed duty as normal, rotating around Emily and the other waiter, Michael, like little clockwork toys. You all ticked along perfectly, leaving full stomachs and mostly happy faces in your wake.

“Can you take this to table thirteen, please? I gotta piss like crazy!”Micheal ordered.

He handed you a steak that was positively dripping in blood, almost setting you off again were it not for the fact that you were so confused by his request. There’s potatoes and salad and sauce on that plate, you thought to yourself, its not a body, just a hunk of meat.

“There isn’t a table thir-” you started, soon trailing off.

Michael had long since dashed off before you could correct him and you sighed to yourself. Great, now who on earth could this be for? You knew every table in the restaurant of course, your knowledge on the place was near perfect with Emily acting like a drill sergeant during your probation stages. However, you didn’t know where thirteen could be, because it didn’t exist. Most people knew that restaurants skipped that number because it was unlucky. Apparently not Michael though.

“I believe that’s for me,” called a rumbling voice.

You frowned and looked down to the man before you, startling as you realised that a table had been placed where it shouldn’t have, and in turn you were standing right over a poor customer. No wonder Michael had made the mistake, you had no idea where the table had even come from. Though you were too embarrassed to worry very much about that in the moment, you needed to recover in front of the man before you made an idiot out of yourself.

“Apologies, sir,” you said with a nervous laugh. “It’s been a busy night. Can I get you anything else?”

You placed down the food in front of him and were glad for it after you’d made eye contact. There was something strange about the man that made you jump. His stunning blue eyes captured your gaze and made you feel like you were in the middle of a laser sight. You gulped and looked away for a second afterward, trying your best to compose yourself.

“Thank you,” the man said softly, still fixing his eyes on you. “This is perfect.”

His sly grin struck you as familiar, but when you studied the man more, you couldn’t place him. He had a dark peacoat draped over his chair and wore a black shirt and fitted jeans. His beard was trim and cut close to his jawline, and his hair was near perfect, combed back neatly over his head. Everything about him was perfectly ordinary, perhaps would’ve been completely innocuous if not for his eyes.

You could’ve sworn there was a little black band circling the pupil, but just as you thought you’d lost yourself in them he chuckled at you. Causing your face to flame up in burning shame.

“I’m so sorry for staring,” you apologised, holding your hands up in appeasement. “I don’t know what that was about, sorry. You just seemed familiar for a sec.”

“Oh really?” he laughed, “Don’t happen to know a Jonathan Price do you?”

“Jonathan Price?” you repeated questioningly.

“My name, sweetheart,” he grinned, showing off his pointy canines. “Though you can just call me John if you like.”

“Oh my god, my brain’s going tonight,” you laughed, trying to get yourself away from him and the bloody steak that seemed to ooze with every passing second. “I’ll stop bothering you now, Jonathan! Enjoy your steak.”

His name sat heavy on your tongue, as if a fizzy sweetie had stung at the nerves and left it swollen and red. Jonathan. There was something about it that didn’t fit right. An unnatural force wanted you to turn round and call him a liar, demand that he reveal himself for who he really was.

Though you didn’t put much credence in unnatural forces anymore. Not when unnatural forces tended to be symptoms of your mental illness. Instead you shook your head and kept working, making a note to yourself that you needed to get more sleep that night. Sleep and meds usually helped, and you were praying that they’d set you right again the next day.

#Demon!Price #captain john price #captain price x reader #mw2 #call of duty

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afrognamedfizzarolli · 7 months ago

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Holy. Fucking. Shit.

SEASON 2 TRAILER BITCHES

I'm absolutely loosing my mind! I actually woke up to my phone blowing up about it. And I've spent the last few hours rewatching it and trying to break it down. So I'm going to share my thoughts!

Ive organized all the clips into the separate episodes I believe they are from, so lets start with The Full Moon. Here's my theory about how I think these clips line up and what the episode will be about!

So to start, I'm confident these clips with Vassago and Andrealphus take place in this episode. Probably the first part asking where Stolas is being near the very beginning of the episode. The shot of Andrealphus I'm not sure of though. (I'd like to mention how much I love how his tail comes up and makes it clear he is in fact a peacock)

Next we have these clips of Blizø and Stolas. Stolas is evidently frustrated. While this could very likely be in the later half, I have a feeling this is early in the episode, probably when Blitzø shows up for their full moon meeting. I'm guessing this is where Stolas dumps on Blitzø that he wants to actually be loved. The shot of the flower would also make sense to be in this scene as they are in the garden.

I believe this form we see attack Stolas and Blitzø is Vassago. This is tricky as far as where it goes, but I'm going to place it here as Blitzø is in his signature outfit here like he was in the last scene. Stolas has changed though

Here's where we start to see Blitzø in his outfit specific outfit. I think this is later that day or the next day, him planning to go back to see Stolas and properly express that he indeed loves him. Here I think he is telling Moxxie that he is not going to be working that day and literally dumping the work load on Mox.

I looove these clips! My guess to whats happening here is that Blitzø goes to Fizz looking for help, one of them has the idea to bring a gift to Stolas, Fizz takes Blitzø into this part of the palace with a bunch of Ozzies creations. He pulls out the absurdity large toy as an idea. Eventually they end up deciding on the "Dankee" candle, which Blitzø brings to Stolas. I also love that it looks like he scaled the wall up to the balcony while dragging this comically large candle in a sack.

Here's the part we've all been dreading waiting for... The crystal. I think here is where Stolas gives it to him, and express' how much he hates the transactional deal they have going on. Blitzø completely takes it the wrong way, thinking Stolas is giving it to him as a way to tell him to fuck off.

Here Blitzø also says the "You fucks think you can do this every time" which is alluding to again that Blitzø has experience and possibility was involved with another royal at some point. I know this isnt a new theory, but I think Vassago is a very likely candidate as its very convenient to have this line and Vassago introduced in (presumably) the same episode. This could also just be referring to higher class demons in general, such as Verosika

These next few clips I believe all take place in The Full Moon as well, but I'm not confident on their placement. The shot of Octavia maybe not, but her line what was over it, saying how Stolas doesn't love her or Stella, only Blitzø, is most likely near in this episode though.

For these 3, I think they are during the Stolitz duet, either in the very beginning or ending of the episode (I seem to remember it being said the episode will open with it, but I might be imagining that)

In the part where the images of Blitzø shatter, it's the one closest to Stolas first and then makes its way out, it's also the one closest to him where Blitzø looks the happiest and as they get further he looks more upset/distressed.

The sequence of Blitzø and Stolas' silhouettes could also be almost anywhere but makes sense during the duet. I love the detail of Blitzø's tattoo showing as a heart as a child and as an adult its a broken heart (it's hard to see in these screen shots cause Tumblr decided to nuke the quality)

In the part where Stolas is singing with the celestial imagery he is again wearing a red turtle neck under his cape which bares a resemblance to the one hes wearing when Blitzø is protecting him. I'm not sure if this means anything, but fells worth pointing out.

Again I am sorry for the shit photo quality, and possible bad grammar and spelling. I currently have the posts for the rest of the episodes nearly done so expect those in the next few hours ♡ Id love to hear any other ideas or theories about the upcoming episodes, or anything I missed/got wrong!

Pt. 1: The Full Moon | Pt. 2 :Apology Tour | Pt. 3: Ghostfuckers | Pt. 4: Mastermind | Pt. 5: Sinsmas

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0heartangel0 · 2 months ago

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So, I was doing an experimental playthrough of Persona 5 Strikers recently (don't ask how it went, I don't want to talk about it...), and I realized something: throughout the entirety of the Shibuya arc, Zenkichi’s shown to be very calculating and deceptive to a scary degree. Like, scary-scary. While yes, these traits (the ladder, especially) appear throughout the game from time-to-time, Shibuya just takes it to the max, and I find it weird how no one talks about it. So I'm going to break it down here in different posts, scene-by-scene. Warning: it's gonna be a long one.

Pt. 1: Drunk Creep And Sober Weirdo

Okay, as strange as it sounds, we're actually gonna skip his first two appearances (the police meeting + him eating curry in Leblanc). However, I will bring them up later to make a point on something, so look out for that.

We're actually gonna start with his introduction to the thieves. As they're being harassed by a drunkard, Zenkichi pops up from the alleyway, almost like he was waiting for them there this whole time. When Mr. Intoxicated asks who he is, he smugly states that he's just "a knight in shining armor." He then makes a whole show on beating the drunk guy and (accidentally) scaring off the guy's subordinate by revealing his occupation to him. To top off his odd behavior, he then reveals to the thieves that there's another PubSec officer tailing them, hiding behind a nearby lamp post, much to the officer's confusion (he even alludes to more officers doing the same thing ("-considering the number of tails on you")).

All of this, I feel, is him trying to show not only how in control he is of the situation, but trying to paint himself as their savior (if the knight in shining armor line is anything to go by), and thus, owing him a discussion. Him also revealing one of his fellow cops out in the open could be painted as a friendly heads-up, but it might really just be him showing that since PubSec is already on them for something, seems only right to talk with the only one that's trying to be more direct about it. And so, that's what they do once he offers a discussion in LeBlanc.

Before we move on, I want to mention this optional dialogue that happens if you tell him you had the situation handled:

Despite his main goal here, he still tries to mock you, implying that your hypothetical attempt at dealing with the drunk guy would just be you getting to show off and look like the hero (ironically, something he kind of ended up doing).

However, if you choose to thank him instead, he replies with this:

Okay, so once inside, after some glaring and Haru making Zenkichi uncomfortable, Zenkichi finally cuts to the chase as to why he's here: he's a Public Security Inspector transferred to Tokyo's police department for a specific case. And this is where things start to get really interesting. He starts to go on about what recently happened on a talk show involving Alice Hiragi, even asking if you knew about it (if you deny it, he'll call you out for lying by simply pointing out your face:

But, if you admit to being there, he actually gets shocked over you even being honest about something like that:

). He goes on to describe how the police looked into the incident, and how there doesn't seem to be any motive for the MC to have wanted to propose to Alice in the first place. He then says:

I'm gonna need you to put a pin on this (plus the whole thing about Alice), for it's a surprise tool that will help us later.

The thieves are obviously in an uproar about this accusation, to which Zenkichi points out that the police don't have any proof, leading to ask, "are you the one doing this?" Either option you're given leads you to deny it. Zenkichi’s response to this is by "calling" his commissioner and informing her of your confession. His tone of voice (+ with what we later learn about Kaburagi) heavily implies that he's faking the call, which is such petty behavior, I love it. Here's the whole convo if you're curious:

(Love how Ann and Ryuji immediately believe him; they're so gullible!).

The point he's trying to get across is that no matter their pleas and claims, the police will still be eager to arrest them. He then claims that he'd also be negatively affected by this since the case won't get solved if they're arrested. So, he offers to make a deal with them: they offer him the needed intel he wants to solve this case, and he'll make sure the police won't lay a finger on them.

While what you answer with doesn't really matter (much like all of your dialogue choices in this game), one in particular caught my eye; "I don't trust the bureau." I say that, because this is how Zenkichi responds:

What's that? Zenkichi’s actually showing....GENUINE sympathy? Like...really??? If you listen to the audio, you can even hear his voice break at the end of the dialogue!

Well, thank God Zenkichi has an actual heart, and not just an artificial one made of sass and condescension-

Also, he says this soon after:

Much like Futaba, I had no idea what this meant, so had to look it up. It's a Japanese idiom that actually refers commonly to hawks as opposed to cats, and it usually means to stay humble and not boast about your talents. In a word, don't show your cards too early, or something.

Anyway, he explains that they don't have to answer right away, but hopes they will see things his way. And with that, he leaves, but not before Sojiro 86's curry for Zenkichi in the future. Despite his expression and words to that ("Now that hurts..."), the delivery reads full-on sarcasm, right down to the subtle quiet chuckle he makes after delivering the line (dude does not care).

The rest of the scene is of the thieves complaining about Zenkichi (With Yusuke describing him as having "a great many bats in his belfry", which means this:

You know you're weird when Yusuke of all characters describes you as that). They then conclude that they don't need his help, and will be taking back the desires Alice stole to clear their names all on their own. What they don't know, is that they've already played right into Zenkichi’s trap.

What this trap is? At this point, we don't know, yet (unless you've played/watched cutscenes of this game, before). Needless to say, he is very shady, extremely smug, and, as Yusuke put it, weird. Also take note that when they deny his deal, he doesn't appear shocked, angry, or even sad. In fact, he seems pretty chill about it, only saying that he hopes they'll come around to it. Also-also, take extra note that throughout the vast majority of the time he's talking this whole scene, his profile is usually on his smiling profile (also love that the only time his shocked profile is ever used, it's during optional dialogue of you admitting to being at a potential crime scene that you're already suspicious of causing).

As we move on, remember to keep in mind all of the notes and pins I told you to put up, got it?

Pt. 2

Pt. 3

Pt. 4

#persona 5 #persona 5 strikers #zenkichi hasegawa #character analysis #This man is a weirdo #This is in parts because Tumblr won't allow more than 30 images per post

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descendant-of-truth · 2 years ago

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I've been wondering if I should make this post for a while, but I'm just gonna come out and say it: the Sonic movies are not pro-military just because Tom is a police officer. I'd argue that the movies are pretty anti-military, actually.

So, let's talk about Tom first, since he's kind of the elephant in the room with this discussion. Tom is the sheriff to a small town where he rarely has to deal with any real crimes; he usually deals with more trivial problems like people's cars breaking down, and we see him help a family of ducks cross the street.

He's an officer partly out of a sense of obligation (reportedly his family has held this position in some way for over 50 years), and partly because he wants to be in a position where he can protect people in serious situations. His goal at the start of the first movie is to start working in a bigger city where he can be more helpful.

I won't say that Tom isn't something of an idealized vision of a cop, and that in the wrong hands, he could easily be used as a form of military promotion. But I think Tom is like this for a different, more specific reason: to be used as a sharp contrast to literally every other government official we see.

Question: who exactly is the villain in the first Sonic movie? Robotnik, yes, but who is he? What does he represent?

Well, he's pretty much the face of the military.

Robotnik is under direct orders from the government to look into the power outage incident, and that turns into a mission to capture (and experiment on) Sonic - and regardless if Robotnik was authorized to use lethal force, he does so anyway.

And the thing is, all of the higher-ups know he's unhinged and dangerous, but he keeps his job because he gets results regardless of his methods. Heck, the first thing we see him do is lie to Tom about who he is and what he's there for so he can get inside his house to search it. Not exactly the most flattering portrayal of military investigations.

(He even gets punched by Tom after forcing his way into the house anyway)

Tom then proceeds to spend the rest of the movie on the run from the government, going out of his way to protect Sonic (who is quite literally an illegal alien) at the risk of his own livelihood. Clearly, adhering to his job description is not something the movie views as morally correct here.

Second question: who's the villain of the second movie? Still Robotnik, but he's not employed by the government anymore, so he can't really represent them anymore, right?

No, but considering Sonic's adopted family was actively manipulated by a government spy, who was meant to marry his new aunt in order to target him, and Sonic proceeds to get tased and thrown into a cage along with Tails by the other military personnel present at the fake wedding... I think it's safe to say that they are, once again, a central antagonistic force in this series.

(Yeah they do a funny where the spy turns out to have fallen in love for real, but I think we can all agree that was done for the sake of keeping a whimsical tone and not to endorse what was actually happening with the government there)

Which brings us to the third movie, which is still unreleased at the time of writing this. And one final question: how exactly do you think they're planning to write an adaptation of Sonic Adventure 2?

They've already set GUN up as the villains. That alone is central to Shadow's backstory, and the writers have clearly done their homework on Sonic lore. And even if they've somehow wildly missed the messaging of the franchise they've made two successful movies off of, the fact of the matter is that there is no adapting SA2 without anti-military sentiments. Like, they would have to work pretty hard and completely butcher both the game and their own movies up to this point for that to come out being pro-military.

This part's more in speculation territory, but here's a thought: what do you think Tom is going to do when he finds out what happened to Shadow?

Remember, Tom is an idealized small town sheriff who has this job out of obligation. He hasn't had to deal with the darker side of all this stuff until he started protecting Sonic, which - just as a reminder - has led to his house being searched, his car being cut in half, Sonic almost getting killed at least twice, his sister-in-law being manipulated, Sonic and Tails getting locked in cages... I'm probably even missing a few things.

Once everything that happened 50 years ago comes to light (especially if the theorists are right about Tom's family having been involved in it), I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he just. quit being a police officer. or got into activism. or both.

But even if we limit the analysis to just the two movies that are out right now, I struggle to see how "Tom shirks his duties to protect an alien child from being experimented on by the government" is in any way a pro-military sentiment.

In conclusion: basically every problem in the Sonic movies is the fault of the government in some way, so can we please stop talking about the series as if Tom is singlehandedly making them pro-military, now. Thanks

#sonic the hedgehog #sonic movie #sonic movie 2 #sonic movie 3 #tom wachowski #dr robotnik #movie robotnik #analysis #meta #This is mostly constructive but I am. just a bit annoyed XD

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ye-it-is-skeet · 5 months ago

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I found some poses on Pinterest and you can guess what happened✨ Also taking this time to show the full-body full-designs of the teetlez+Usagi✨ And to talk about the designs and choices that were made. Also behind them is basically the shapes I imagined as I drew them all

<Info-Dumping Zone>

Leo- The most I can say about his design is like.. He wears wrappings either to have support for his wrists or just because. I have sketches of all their masks from behind but Leo's is based on, when I looked up traditional ninja designs, and saw a ninja with a warrior man-bun type deal so ye✨

Raph- His rough and "spiky" look is more just to show his aggressive demeanor most of the time. At first I just added the armor because I saw some ninja outfits where they wore armor (mostly on their shins and forearms), but after drawing this I realized it can be good for ramming into people and having that protection. Also the instant I finished designing him I knew I wanted him to be DARK, and I am OBSESSED with how dark he is✨ Also the short mask tails are because I see so many ppl giving Rise Raph specifically his tails tied to a bow so ye. Also it wasn't just a pentagon, it's more that I just thought about polygons.

Donnie- I actually designed Donnie first, because he's my favorite, heheh✨ His design is simple, I wanna talk more about his Bo-Staff. As I drew this I just made this area that stuck out from the staff where the wrap is, and it reminded me of those pencil grips. So now it's that Donnie doesn't like holding the rough staff for too long and has that little area to give his hands a break as he continues to fight. The armor on his shins I do not yet have an explanation for. Maybe it's so his kicks can hurt more.

Mikey- Again, simple design. When I designed him I wanted him to look round and a lil chubby maybe~✨ Quick tip: if he doesn't look baby then you drew him wrong.

Usagi- For the most part I just did my own thing, the outfit design, more specifically how the blue cloth bits are designed, were entirely based on how @okumura-senseixxx draws Usagi (love how they did it✨, obviously). Using that design because I wanted Usagi to look pretty, and that design of clothing is very pretty✨ Other than that it's a matter of just flipping Usagi's hair because trust me it doesn't look good any other way. I didn't think heart when designing Usagi, but when I think of Usagi I think "heart" so ye.

Teetlez- I am thinking of doing one of those "art study" sheets for my teetlez and characters if you guys ever want, I'll just do a mini worded version for now since I'll be working on something else. Overall their bodies are based on the first concept designs of my "Turtlier" Teetlez which was the Rise Boys just.. "Turtlier". Those designs changed but I loved the body type and used it here✨ The beaks are personally a must✨ I find it more interesting to draw beaks than normal mouths for the teetlez✨ The tails are also just a personal must, I just like them✨ Took a while to figure how I'd draw the individual pieces of their outfits, I thought doing brown or grey (ew) but both matched Raph's red in greyscale so it would never work. Then I looked back at my sketched design of Donnie and noticed to differentiate the pieces of clothing I had shaded his arm and leg bits. ✨Lightbulb✨ Just make the other pieces darker variations of the main color✨

I have a lot of information that I'm still trying to hash out, so ye✨

References (if it's important at all, from Pinterest except the nunchaku one, google):

#tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt au #tmnt raph #tmnt donnie #tmnt leo #tmnt mikey #tmnt usagi

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fluff-writing · 14 days ago

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This idea has been percolating in my brain.

Buckle up this idea contains implied mpreg (which so does D4 itself so who gives a shit lol) and referenced past noncon. Also discussion of possible infant death, and Inarius being his usual bastardly-self.

But a D3.5 AU thing.

Tyrael discovers his brother is not only alive, but also free and on Sanctuary, by way of having him show up like some kind of fucked up stork and drop a scuzzy infant into his lap. Turns out its a certifiably 50/50 genuine angel/demon hybrid Nephalem. Not the quasi-super-humans Sanctuary usually gets nowadays. The real deal. He's got little horns. And a tiny, boney whip-tail.

Oh, it came from Inarius in some manner or another, but he wasn't interested in raising the first baby Lilith spawned in specifically for them, he sure as hell isn't taking on this one by himself. He can barely function for himself on account of the 3k years of torture. Whose the other parent? Who the hell knows, a lot was happening to him in hell and it's not like he was keeping track of who put what where. Torture, for three-thousand or so years, Tyrael.

Why didn't he just kill it? Fuck you, that's why.

(He certainly thought about it. He couldn't get rid of it while it was in him, and once it was out...it would've been easy. All he had to do was leave it where it'd been birthed, out in the Pandemonium wastes. It probably wouldn't have even lasted hours before something came along and had a fat little snack. He'll deny any kind of love or attachment to the little beast. The only thing that had him bundling it up in pieces of his own torn away robing and tucking it against his shoulder was...spite. Yes. Spite. He'd make this thing someone else's problem, and see how they liked being saddled with a tiny destroyer-of-worlds packed into a pudgy, useless, screaming little body. And if the way it swung clumsy fists in the air and grabbed for his face was the first truly gentle, innocent touch he'd had in millennia...well that was no one's business but his.)

(Somewhere, Rathma is laughing at him. And also concerned for his new baby brother pls don't drop him it would take at least a day for him to make it out to Pandemonium from the bottom of Sanctuary's ocean.)

Who better than to care for this thing than his treacherous, hypocritical, mortal-loving brother?

Well, he's not sticking around, so good luck when the brat figures out fire-breath, Linarian was burning entire barns to the ground by age twelve.

Tyrael takes all of this in stride, and he, Lorath, Donan and Elias now have a baby to raise. A super-powered baby the likes of which Sanctuary has never quite seen before. What could possibly go wrong. He names the kid Lee, in honor of Leah, and doesn't know how much the two would've had in common had she lived.

Lee is mostly a good kid. A little too clever at times, a little too eager to test rules and limits and break the rules anyway just to see what happens. But once he understands that rules are in place for reasons (we don't scale the bookshelves because they're not sturdy enough and could break, we go to bed on time so we're not so tired), he usually follows them.

True to what Inarius said, he figures out how to start a lot of fire way to quickly for anyone's taste. Usually he's good about using it only for defense, and not Dastardly Actions. Sometimes Elias is asking for it though. His stuff is the most fun to burn, he gets real mad about it.

Donan is inspired. He loves this little stinker. He wants one of his own. Lorath is a little bit horrified at the thought of another kid underfoot, as he finds Lee to be quite the handful. More than the other three, he worries about what happens when the nephalem grows up. He's going to be big, and he's going to be powerful. Inarius's last son changed the way people study magic, and commands the bloody dead. What's this one going to be capable of? And Donan wants to throw a regular human child into the mix with him? What the Hell man.

He's quietly supportive when Donan meets Braega and starts a little romance tho.

Tyrael loves his nephew. He's never had actual, proper family the way humans count it before. Yes Inarius is his brother, that's why he's in this whole situation to begin with, but there's has never been a 'brotherly' relationship.

Lee is so clearly his brother's kid it's a little scary. It's like having Inarius 2.0 running around but tiny and he grew like a damn weed the first few years so now he's all skinny-stretched out with lanky arms and legs. And that whip tail. It taps when he's annoyed or goes question-mark when he's happy, and rattles when he's scared or mad. Lee is usually scheming about something or another, and proud as a five-year can manage. He cares passionately and wants to know everything. Tyrael is enchanted watching him grow and change, and is certain this is the Mortal Experience in real time.

They encounter Lee's older brother a few times. Tyrael finds this unnerving. Lorath is defensive the whole time. Elias tries to get him to stay around and teach them death magics, to which he is politely but firmly rebuffed.

Lee doesn't know what to make of the tall, dark person who looks and feels and smells like he should know him. Rathma doesn't know what to make of him in turn, but does clock his other parent immediately.

They have the same nose, see.

It's not until Elias does something absolutely boneheaded and brings forth Sanctuary's ancient mother back into the world that this really becomes and issue though. After all, if her goal is to destroy her father, and she is a construct of his, then of course any other children he may have must also be destroyed.

Doubly so that this one happens to have come from her treacherous, disloyal, ungrateful fool of a former mate.

#tumblr tried to eat this post #fuck off tungl #Diablo AU #the Mephistinarius crotch-spawn fic no one asked for

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hello-nichya-here · 8 months ago

Note

Concerning Friends: With Chandler being your favourite, could you explain what draws you to him? What you find interesting in his character, in his development? Love hearing your takes on..well, literally everything 🤍

Gladly!

Chandler Bing Appreciation

Humor

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of Chandler is "He's the funniest of the cast", and considering the competition he had, that's a pretty big accomplishment. I'm a sucker for sarcastic jokes, and Chandler was the king of it. I always liked how he could think of hilarious replies to literally everything everyone said so fast, and his way of delivering the jokes was so specific to him that even the show itself poked fun at it.

And I loved how, just like he was quick to make jokes at everyone else's expense, he also did it to himself, which showed both that he could take a joke AND that he was very insecure. To quote one of my favorite exchanges between him and Rachel (that I totally don't relate to on a spiritual level)

R: You should never be allowed to talk to people! C: I'm sure you're right, but why?!

Him being Joey's best friend also created a lot of naturally funny moments because Joey was way more confident, and far dumber, than Chandler, so one of them is always being the butt of a joke just by being next to the other.

I promise this whole thing won't be just quotes, but nothing better exemplifies what I mean quite like this bit of dialogue when they're discussing possibly having a threesome with a girl, and flipping a coin to decide on which end each will be:

J: What's heads and what's tails? C: If you don't know that, then I don't wanna do this with you.

But my absolute favorite thing about the jokes written for Chandler was that they often poked fun at the show itself, like him responding to Monica giving him a key to her appartment with "Door hasn't been locked in five years, but okay", or making fun of typical Ross and Rachel drama, or just point out how completely absurd some of the situations they got into was, like when Ross was murdering everyone's ears while playing bagpipes for Chandler and Monica's wedding.

M: Why is your family scottish? C: Why is your family Ross?

The guy also looked funny. I've seen one of the directors say Matthew was always aware of the camera, and it shows, because he is always doing something, even in the background, mainly funny faces to react to what the other five are doing. And that led to lots of improv on his part, and you can actually see some of the other actors breaking character in the background because they couldn't hold back the laughter.

His physical comedy was great, and nothing puts a smile on my face quite like seeing Chandler make a joke just a little bity funnier by jumping up when reacting to stuff, or doing a little dance out of the blue - or even better, reacting to stuff that was not supposed to happen. One of my favorite exemples of it in the whole show is him and Rachel (a criminally underused comedic duo of the show) in her office, with him trying to convince her to uncuff him after he hooked up with her boss, and Matthew's face just breaks me every single time I see it.

youtube

Combine his habit of playing off of EVERYTHING with the improvs both from him and co-stars, and you have little moments like this one in which Ross gets a call from his second (ex) wife and Matthew just reacts to David's improv on instinct, then doesn't know what to do next:

Seriously: could he be more iconic?

Trauma, Insecurities & Awkwardness

For all of his hilarity, Chandler also had quite a lot of emotional baggage that he often either refused to deal with or didn't know how to deal with.

His parents were a disaster, with the dad cheating, the mom hooking up with one of his friends when he was already very uncomfortable with how much he (and everyone) knew about her sex-life and sexual fantasies - to the point that Chandler legitimately thought it was normal for kids to have seen orgies - and, more importantly, he was told about ALL the drama of their messy divorce, and even at his wedding they were at each other's throats.

He went through a lot as a child and naturally that affected how he acted as an adult, making him a messy, flawed, sympathetic character. It was easy not to judge him too much for things like his deeply dysfunctional on-again off-again relationship with Janice, or the moments of immaturity/anxiety in his romance with Monica - especially because he did make progress and grew a lot.

But the dude was also a mess in other (deeply relatable) ways. He flew to Yemen to avoid telling his ex he didn't want to get back together. He lied to said ex about still having feelings for her/wanting to have an affair so she wouldn't show up at his wedding/move to the house next to his. He lied about not being able to come home and was actually gonna let Joey think Monica was cheating, just to not have to tell his best friend that he wanted to spend the night with his wife instead of hanging out. This man let a co-worker call him by the wrong name for months, got in the way of him getting a promotion, then helped the dude trash his office - all to avoid going through the awkwardness of correcting him.

There's a reason he said stuff like "What must it be like not to be crippled by fear and self-loathing?"

A Caring Friend

Even though Chandler didn't think very highly of himself, another thing that made him a personal favorite for me is that he clearly had a very kind, loving side.

He invited both of his parents to his wedding even after all the shit they pulled. His goodbye to Rachel at the end of the show broke my heart in a million little pieces because he was just so sweet to her. He and Joey were so close they were practically a couple, and when he fell for his girlfriend and kissed her, he not only confessed, he was willing to not go after her because he wanted to prove to Joey he'd never betray him again. There's also a "Joey room" in the house he and Monica bought at the end of the show.

Even though his romance with Janice was a mess, he was a really good boyfriend to her when she was leaving her husband for him - and then he stepped aside when Janice realized she still had feelings for the guy, so her kid would not grow up with two dysfunctional parents like he did.

Those moments made the character feel far more real and, once again, made it a lot easier for me to still feel a lot of sympathy for him even when he was in the wrong.

But come on. If we're REALLY gonna talk about Chandler's sweet, caring, understanding, mature side, we gotta talk about the person that brought it out the most.

Chandler & Monica

Mondler, Mondler, Mondler. The best couple on the show without a shadow of a doubt, and possibly one of the best sitcom couples in history. And it was the dynamic that allowed Chandler to develop as a character and let the qualities he already had be front and center in many episodes.

Before the writers even considered pairing them up, we already Chandler offer to be her boyfriend/husband and father of her kids later in life if she doesn't find someone. Monica is offended the first time because why wouldn't she have found someone by then, and in the second time she just laughs because, come on, they're friends, JUST friends????? It'd neeeeever happen.

Both are played for laughs (though Monica does let him try to win her over the second time), but they already highlight some very important things:

1 - Chandler cares so much about Monica that just saying "I'm sure you'll find someone eventually" isn't enough. He has to assure her that even if nothing goes according to plan, she'll still have someone to grow old with.

2 - As early as season one, Chandler already liked and trusted Monica enough that he was not at all hesitant to suggest "Hey, maybe you and I could get together in the future and even have kids." I remind you that at that point in the story Chandler had never so much as let one of his girlfriends have a drawer with their things in his home due to his fear of commitment, and he had assumed EVERY COUPLE broke up after their first fight because pretty much none of his previous relationships survived it (except Janice, but that was more of a "They DID break up, they just got back together later" kind of deal).

And that last point is really made it so easy for audiences to get attached to their romance - which was originally only going to last a couple of episodes! They were already super comfortable with each other and were clearly compatible, which allowed their relationship to progress without the need for the neverending drama, Ross and Rachel style.

Monica was neurotic, had a serious case of OCD, could be very bossy, often needed things done ONE way and one way only - which meant Chandler always knew where he stood with her. If something was wrong, she'd tell him. If she said she was happy and loved him, he could believe her more easily because she simply could not fake it when something was bothering her.

Much like Chandler, her family life was not at all ideal (due to her parents pretty openly liking Ross more than her) and she had tons of self-esteem issues (again, because of her parents and because she used to be overweight) - but she also take a joke, or at the very least, make fun of people right back. I think Chandler related to that.

And, more importantly, their friend group had not imploded after Ross and Rachel's relationship ended very badly, twice. So Chandler just knew that, even if he and Monica didn't work out, it wouldn't be the end of the world, or of their friendship.

It made perfect sense that lots of his typical paranoia didn't affect him as much during their relationship, because by that point he just knew that Monica would always be part of his life.

But the writers also didn't make the mistake of dropping his insecurities, anxiety and even immaturity completely. They came back every now then, sometimes for jokes, other times in a more serious way.

He can't bring himself to full on say that he wants them to be exclusive right away, got way too cocky about being the best sex she ever had and thus made her mad, assumed they'd break up after the first fight, nearly gave himself a heart-attack when he accidentally said "I love you", proposed to her because he wanted them to be on good terms after a fight but didn't know how to fix things without her guiding him, pretended to storm out in Vegas with an empty bag because he just wanted to be dramatic after a fight, and he almost didn't show up at their wedding.

The fact that the writers allowed to still have flaws, took the time to have him overcome said flaws and without being judgemental of him, like Monica was wasting her time with a total loser, is one of the reasons why his character development worked so well, and why I'll defend even the worst seasons of the show.

More importantly, despite the fact Monica is the one with the more experience on how to actually have a relationship, they also let Chandler be the one be the mature one every now and again, and talk sense into her when she's being unreasonable (like when she wanted to spend ALL the money he had saved for their future on their wedding alone).

I also really like how they have HIM taking the lead in some major events for their relationship, showing not just that he cares, but that he really is growing as a character and becoming more comfortable with being an equal in the relationship, instead of just needing Monica to guide/push him or just agreeing whenever she wants to takes things to the next level.

He is the one that decides they're still in "London time", the one to first say "I love you" (twice), the one to propose in Vegas and then start the conversation about whether they should really get married once they both think it over and are afraid they're rushing into it, the one to decide it's time for them to move in together, the one to propose for real (only took the writers five fucking tries to realize "Damn, maybe they SHOULD get married"), and while Monica says she wants a baby, she does it as a joke and it's Chandler who then brings up the subject seriously.

That last one also brings us one of the sweetest, saddest moments in the entire show. Them discovering they can't have kids, and Chandler making that whole speech to the mother of the baby they want to adopt that, when the time comes, he'll figure out how to be a dad, but Monica is already a mother - without a baby.

It just showed how much he loved her and how great of a partner he was, and it was FAR from being the one time in which they remain an loveable, interesting couple to watch post-marriage (seriously, it's crazy how Friends was THE show to get both a dramatic mess of a couple that can never reconciliate until the finale AND a stable couple that is just allowed to be happy together).

Chandler getting a look at what his life would be like if Monica left him when his boss is dragging him into his mid-life crisis. Monica being all excited to show him her new boots AND allow to actually guess what's changed about her look instead of doing the obligatory sitcom thing of "Wife gets mad at the husband for petty shit", and then Chandler carrying her on his back because said boots hurt her feet (then saying the other pair she wants to buy will cost her one husband, which always cracks me up). Chandler having to move to Tulsa because of his job, them missing each other like crazy, Chandler remaining faithful when another woman makes a move on him and quitting his job because he just wants to be with his wife, who is then super supportive of him when he's unsure of what to do in his professional life from then on - which of course, leads to this great joke.

M: I want you to have a job that you love, not statistical analysis and data reconfiguration. C: I quit and you learn what I do?

(And in case anyone is wondering, yes, I had to google what his job was because I forgot too)

They're simply an incredible couple that I would gladly watch doing the dishes together, and their relationship being so well-written was one of the best things that could have happened to Chandler's characterization because the show deconstructed and evolved it without betraying the core of who Chandler Bing was.

Also their romance led to the iconic episode of everyone finding out and messing with each other about it, and thus the scene of him and Phoebe trying to "seduce each other." I want to find the genius who wrote that scene in particular and send them a thank you card because it was the best thing in the whole world and I'll cherish it forever.

Matthew Perry, The Absolute Legend

Naturally, I have to end this post by remembering the guy that brought this amazing character to life.

Like I said before, he was always aware of the camera and making sure even the smallest reaction was funny for the audience. Like the other main actors, his charisma made good scenes great, and bad/mediocre scenes enjoyable - and whenever the script gave him something truly excellent to work with, he'd do it perfectly and make it all the more special.

He also stopped the writers from commiting THE biggest mistake they could have ever made: In the season 5 finale, after discovering Monica had lunch with her ex, he was supposed to cheat on her in Vegas, basically copying the Ross and Rachel break up drama of season 3. The actor asked them to change the script because he felt it would make everyone hate his character, sparing the audience of more unecessary drama and giving us the super cute almost-wedding in Vegas, that they chicken out of like two dorks, and then leads to them moving in together.

Matthew Perry was gave this role everything he had, even while going through really dark times, and in doing so he made millions of fans happy all over the world - and he'll be dearly missed.

#asks #chandler bing #mondler #chandler x monica #matthew perry

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cyanide-latte · 3 months ago

Note

For Tea, Rand, and Xinyi:

failure: What's your OC's greatest failure? Have they been able to move past it? Does anyone else know about it?

wound: How does your OC handle being wounded? Are their wounds mostly physical? Mental? Emotional? What's the worst wound your OC has ever experienced?

Oohhh this should be interesting... Thank you!

Failure

Toussaint- He considers his greatest failure to be not recognizing that Rollo desperately needed help he wasn't getting and that it culminated in the Night of the Fire Lotuses. Tea feels like he failed his dear friend, again and again, and now it's led to this strange shift between them and he has no idea how to fix it or even if it can be fixed. (I'm sure many people know about it because Tea is desperate for any advice that could help him mend that.)

Bertrand- Refuses to admit his failures. (In actuality, as his creator I can tell you one of his greatest failures that is going to follow him into adulthood is that he fumbled when he confessed his feelings for Felix Pondicliff only for Felix to question his motivations, and as a result, Rand's inability to answer the question leads to him struggling with it. He tries (barely) to self-reflect, only to decide that he's so hurt and angry at the rejection that he's not going to self-reflect, and instead becomes bitter and angry about romantic love as a whole. He refuses to give an accurate account of what happened between him and Felix to most people, with only Rollo knowing the entire truth of what happened (and big sister Marianne having sussed out on her own the truth that Rand refuses to own up to.) Rand shot himself in the foot with this in more ways than one.)

Xinyi- Lol you want a list? No but in all seriousness, every time I think about what they consider their greatest failure, my mind goes back to the song "Reflection", specifically the lines "I will never pass for a perfect bride/ Or a perfect daughter". As Xinyi's kind of an inverse twist of Mulan, they're never going to be a perfect son for their parents. The way they discover their gender identity and express it, and hold to that truth about themselves has led their parents to hold them at a distance. Xinyi has long since come to accept that their relationship with their parents might be broken for the rest of their lives, (especially when they later marry Chrys Shroud, as Xinyi's parents and all but one of their sisters do not come to the ceremony.) It breaks their heart and they mourn the loss of that relationship, but they do eventually reach a point where they also understand their failure to be the ideal son their parents wanted is a small price to pay in order to become the person they are and were meant to be.

Wound

Toussaint and Bertrand are both fairly decent at handling physical injuries and wounds. Both are athletic, Tea doing boxing and Rand doing fencing, and both can handle being wounded, including very basic first aid for themselves and others in order to deal with such. Mental and emotional wounds are something neither is great at handling yet (see: Rollo's bullshit.) Tea will get there, he's more adaptable and wants to learn how to handle such wounds in himself to heal and move on. Rand is...gonna take a while. (See above: the terrible way he handles rejection.) Worst [physical] wound Tea's ever experienced so far were some broken bones in his tail when he was younger. Rand has been far more lucky with the worst he's ever had being a thorn he stepped on that had to be removed very carefully and with professional help.

Xinyi is smiling and threatening me with their fan. Which is fair, there's a fine line between answering this question and dredging up the trauma they're still healing from. They handle physical wounds very well on the other hand, and have a fairly high pain tolerance; worst physical injury they've ever had came from sparring with their cousin, Wei Renqiao. Ren was a lot more vicious and unrestrained when he was in early adolescence, and actually ended up accidentally slashing Xinyi across their midriff deep enough to require emergency medical help and to cause a fairly impressive scar. Ren was devastated by this and it is apparently why (I am just now learning) he makes such an effort to be gentle with everyone, whereas Xinyi is very proud of the entire thing, and it's why they don't underestimate/learn to pay closer attention to just how powerful Ren really is. (Which comes in clutch when Ren later Overblots and has to be stopped in his rampage...)

The ask prompts list! Still accepting these!

Taglist: @blithesharem @elenauaurs @inmateofthemind @ramshacklerumble @tixdixl

@distant-velleity @rainesol @thehollowwriter @theleechyskrunkly @twst-migraine (DM me if you'd like to be added or removed from the taglist for my TWST OCs stuff)

#TWST OCs #the Anatole siblings #Toussaint Anatole #Bertrand Anatole #Wei Xinyi #my OCs #answered asks #Cyanide speaks

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real-team-luster · 7 months ago

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Introduction: What's Up World!

Hey everyone, the name's Darrin, leader of Team Luster (The real one) I'm new to this whole Rotomblr thing, but one of my admins, Laurel, suggested I start this blog to give me something to do on off days. The work we do here at Luster is simple, really. We've got locations all over, but mostly in Hoenn and Kalos. The gems we sell are great for all occasions, and they're ethically sourced from Carbink and other Rock-type Pokemon in the area. Anyone who tells you we "harvest" Pokemon's gems is just plain lying. Our work is absolutely legal and, even if it wasn't, who's really getting hurt? Anyway, that's all from me. I'll post every now and then about how business is going, maybe bring my admins on every now and then. One last thing, though, remember that no matter what you're told, Team Luster is NOT an evil team like those Galactic or Plasma guys. /// OOC information and team members below the break!

Team Luster is an evil team, but closer to Yell or Star in that they want to accomplish a specific goal (in this case, harvesting gems for profit from wild Pokemon.) Their primary motivation is growing their business and expanding as much as possible.

In-universe, the extent of Team Luster's actions is widely not known, at least for the moment. They take measures to cover up their actions and seem legitimate to the greater public.

Mostly a comedic/low-stakes blog, I won't be getting Team Luster involved with any plots about blowing up the world or anything. They stay away from that.

Team Luster's members are frequently wrong about various things, especially Darrin, but they're fairly knowledgeable about business and battling.

Legendary/Mythical Pokemon are real in this world, but at least from Team Luster's point of view, are more like critically endangered species that just happen to have significant power rather than actual deities.

All of Team Luster's members are more than happy to accept battles! They may not win, in fact they likely won't, but it's not a big deal in their eyes. I don't imagine this will come up for a while, if at all, but they're also willing to accept new members.

I may update this every now and then if necessary, so check back once in a while to see if there's anything new!

Pelipper Mail/Malice, Musharna Mail/Malice, and Union Rooms/Circles are enabled! No Magic Anons at the moment. TEAM MEMBERS Darrin - Male - he/him - 48 - Leader and certified old man

Scar - Garchomp - Female - Moves are Bulldoze, Crunch, Dragon Claw, and Scary Face - Ability is Sand Veil

Fang - Crobat - Male - Moves are Hypnosis, Screech, Supersonic, and Cross Poison - Ability is Inner Focus

Ghoul - Gengar - Male - Moves are Night Shade, Sucker Punch, Acid Spray, and Dream Eater - Ability is Cursed Body

Peridot - Crustle - Female - Moves are Bug Bite, Smack Down, Dazzling Gleam, and Rock Wrecker - Ability is Shell Armor

TEMPORARY (Not officially caught or owned by Darrin)

Coquillant - Terapagos - Female - Moves are Tri Attack, Rapid Spin, Ancient Power, and Protect - Ability is Tera Shift (Currently resides in the Area Zero Underdepths)

Laurel - Nonbinary - She/they - 25 - Admin and certified braniac

Fractal - Sableye - Female - Moves are Astonish, Disable, Knock Off, and Mean Look - Ability is Keen Eye

Alloy - Steelix - Male - Moves are Rock Polish, Dig, Iron Tail, and Stone Edge - Ability is Sturdy

Kira - Female - She/her - 19 - Admin and certified naive newbie

Fuzz - Combusken - Male - Moves are Quick Attack, Double Kick, Flame Charge, and Aerial Ace - Ability is Blaze

Nippy - Mawile - Female - Moves are Fairy Wind, Iron Defense, Crunch, and Ice Fang - Ability is Hyper Cutter

#pkmn irl #pokeblogging #rotomblr #ooc

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artbyblastweave · 1 year ago

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Due to my schedule I generally only see the new episodes of MAWS the Tuesday after they air, so I haven't seen the latest one yet. That said:

The set-up at the tail end of episode 4 goes a long way towards rehabilitating the traditional 1950s "Lois Lane trying to ferret out Superman's secret identity" plot beat. In the 50s it was just weird superdickery fodder, an extension of the cartoonish sitcom runaround that ate all superhero comics alive from the inside at that time. This iteration of it is more grounded in what's already been shown. In a story that takes itself seriously, there's no way that an antagonistic pursuit of Superman's secret identity wouldn't lead to some kind of disaster. But this version of Lois Lane is A.) pointedly career-focused and Out For Her Big Break, to the detriment of her friends, even if she comes to feel bad about it on reflection, B.) in a position to feel personally slighted because she connects the dots after she seals the deal on a relationship with Clark in his civilian identity, C.) has a specific hangup about people close to her keeping information from her (that's what the scene with the phone call from her father is doing.) The perfect cocktail to intelligently execute a really stupid plan.

And, from the other direction- Clark hasn't exactly been given a ton of confidence that Lois is a person he could trust with information this sensitive, has he? His formative experience with her involved her manipulating him into directly disobeying his boss on his first day on the job because she was so sure she was onto something. She specifically wants to blow open the Superman story for the sake of her career, regardless of how much damage it might do to the guy behind the costume- how much confidence should he have that he'll get any special treatment? Also worth mentioning that the Superman persona in this continuity post-dates Clark having to bust out the powers in public to save Lois and then having to professionalize his persona in a hurry because there was no going back after that; this isn't a long-kept secret, it's an emergent situation that he only sorta-kinda opted into and hasn't totally figured out the significance of. Contrast S:TAS, where Superman goes into his weird situationship with Lois being basically fully informed about his own background and capabilities. Overall the fact that everyone involved is around 23 and all relevant events have happened within a three month timespan is making this work.

On a related note, with the benefit of hindsight- I guess one shortcoming of S:TAS was never having Lois work any of it out on her own time. In theory she was a side character in a show about Superman but she still headlined enough plots that it maybe should have eventually come up that she was dating her coworker in his superheroic identity? Going on picnic dates with Superman in costume and yet it never comes up that he's working at the next desk over from her in his civilian identity? I mean, even if she's making the active decision not to know, or if she suspects but for whatever reason decides to just leave it unaddressed in the relationship-that would say something fascinating about her character, right? About Clarks? An unresolved tension there that always bugged me.

#MAWS #my adventures with superman #superman #thoughts #meta

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jj411 · 6 months ago

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My analysis on Bumblebee (Yang x Blake)

To analyze BB we need to look at both Blake and Yang separately at their different arcs. Also we will need to look at Sun for a bit.

I've seen some people say that BB was love at first sight, or it came out of nowhere, or any other thing. I don't agree with those. Let's start by looking at V2.

During the early parts of V2, before the dance, Blake and Yang seem to just be normal friends and combat partners. Which I like. I prefer to see a relationship start as friends and grow deeper over time rather than instant romance at first sight. After a certain point Blake starts to overwork herself which causes everybody to worry about her. Then Sun shows up and was hoping he could invite her to the dance. Sun is very obvious in his attraction to Blake. Yang decides to help out and we get the scene where Yang explains about her mom and how everybody needs a break or they will burn out. She then says she will save Blake a dance and givers her a wink.

Now here is where I think Yang is showing that she is also attracted to Blake. Doesn't really mean love yet, but she is dropping hints of her attraction. Problem is Blake is still too wound up and distracted from White Fang activity so she doesn't seem to pick up on the hints. She goes to the dance and enjoys herself.

We then have that little campfire scene at Mt. Glenn where Yang tries to lift Blake's spirits about her always running away. I don't see this romantic. To me this was just Yang being a good friend and partner.

Now in V3 we don't get a lot until the end. We do get a Blake blushing at Sun early on though. Which shows mutual attraction between the two. But to me this feels more like puppy love, no pun intended. Basically like a high school crush. There is an attraction, but it never went all that deep.

Now we get to the fall of Beacon. Adam attacks Blake and says I will destroy everything you love. Blake hears Yang and sees her; and looks terrified. Adam see's her reaction and says 'Starting with her.'

Now I could be reading too much into, but here is what I think happened with Blake here since she never really showed any romantic thoughts towards Yang before. In this moment, Blake is beginning to realize that she does care about Yang on a deeper level. She just never would have thought about it before because her romantic thought's were on Sun before and she could never imagine her past coming back to attack Yang specifically. These feelings made Blake more aware of what she actually thought of Yang. I could be over analyzing that part.

The fall happens and Yang loses her arm defending Blake. Blake then runs back home with Sun tailing her. After the event Blake's romance towards Sun is basically gone, which to me just supports it was a high school romance type thing. No real depth was there. Now through out V4 and V5 we see Blake think about Yang from time to time. Even Sun brings her up. But Blake's feelings towards Yang is now mixed with a lot of guilt. We know Blake things of Yang on a deeper level, but guilt is now mixed in with that. So it's hard to say just how deep those feelings would really go.

Switching over to Yang, we see her think of Blake from time to time (when she looks at the pile of books). But Yang doesn't dwell on those thoughts too much in V4 as she has to deal with her own PTSD from loosing her arm. We don't get a lot of thoughts on what she thinks of Blake until V5 when she talks to Weiss. Yang makes it clear that she cares deeply for Blake, but Blake really hurt her by running. At this point they both stop thinking about each other as other arcs of the story needs their attention. (Haven and the White Fang attack)

Now we get to V6. The team is back and Blake is ready to jump at a moments notice when it seems like Yang needs something. Yang tells Blake it will be fine, but they will have to get used to things before they hopefully go back to normal. Blake is wanting to help Yang out of guilt and Yang is trying to keep Blake at arms length.

We see that a lot during V6. It especially comes to a head at the Apathy farm where Blake says she will protect Yang, which pisses her off. We learned in V4 that Yang does not like feeling inept. She can still be plenty capable, arm or no arm. To me it seemed like Yang wished Blake would have understood that about her. But they couldn't really talk about as they were on creepy death farm. It wasn't until they both killed Adam where it seemed like they were finally on the same page. Blake wasn't doing things out of guilt anymore and remembers to trust that Yang can handle herself. And Yang felt that trust from Blake.

In V7 we get to the awkward part of their relationship. I feel they each know they like each other but none of them want to really say it out loud. So they do the awkward flirt stuff. V8 had some strong moments and even stronger moments of pining. Then we get to V9 where there were more signs of physical touches until we get to the moment where they both declare that they both love each other.

So where Black Sun felt more shallow and like a high school crush. BB has far more depth to it because of it's buildup and realization from Blake. It's the fact that the relationship came back after Blake ran which is what adds the depth to their feelings towards each other. They were all able to forgive.

This is all just my analysis and I skimmed over some things and may have forgotten other things. But this is just my synopsis on BB's relationship. You may not agree with me, and that's fine. But this is how it looks to me and how I see how it happened. Ramble over.

#rwby #bumblebee #bumblby

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atonalginger · 3 months ago

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Snippet Sunday Monday-Funday!

Thank you for the tag @eridanidreams!

I've been meaning to share stuff and then the wednesdays and sundays roll by and I forget. And yes, it is Monday but hey! Still a good time to share!

I haven't been writing as much as usual do to a lot of stress this past month compounding with the stress I've had all spring-summer with a medical issue I think I've finally gotten squared away! and Hopefully September treats me better....

Now what to share...that is the question. I couldn't decide and expressed as much in the coemancer discord and @silent-moons-camp suggested a sentence of each thing I mentioned I could share. And I think they might be onto something so I'm going to do something like that. More than a sentence but not too much from several points in the upcoming Wild West party fic. All under the cut because otherwise this post would get unruly! There will be shenanigans. Angst. Emotions. Del getting gussied up.

first is some cat burglary shenanigans. Rokov and Doc Melody end up breaking into the Delgado Manor in the Core District for...reasons and have very specific instructions from Del.

Retrieve a specific old stuffed chihuahua from his childhood room.

Trash that fucking room

So...

When he stepped through the side door he saw the bag near the door already full. A commotion down the hall, complete with what sounded the hiss of a hull leak, made him freeze in place. That’s impossible, he thought as he furrowed his brow.

“I got the puppy,” Jay said, her hand appearing out of the doorway with the gold toy chihuahua in her hands. It was tattered, the red collar faded from time and little bald spots on the fabric, but otherwise in good condition. Signs of a toy well loved, “don’t worry I’ll leave some for you.”

“What are you doing in there?” he asked, hesitant to take a step with the call of the Blackest Sea still hissing in the house.

“He said to wreck the room,” the puppy bounced upward as she shrugged, “I thought you were excited for this.”

“I was…” Rokov walked down the hallway and accepted the toy from her. He could see loose stitches that struggled to hold the tail and several of the legs on. The stitches were rougher and with a black thread that stood out from the gold fabric. Someone hurt you and then put you back together. Question is who and why?

Rokov looked into the room and saw a mass of stuff: furniture, posters, loose objects, papers, bedding, and more, being pulled to a point near but not on the ceiling. The force ripping, tearing, and cracking the various materials as they tangled around one another. As he stared the hissing stopped and everything fell to the floor.

“What was that?”

“A gravity well,” Jay answered like it was no big deal, “I’d never really used it before, could never get the timing right in combat for it to be effective and if I’m not careful it could pull Sam into it.”

“You…how?” Rokov asked as he carefully tucked their prize into his coat pocket, “what are you using to do this?”

“Focus on the task at hand,” she reached up and gave his cheek a pat.

Next is angst. Fallout of the score of mementos brought back from the manor.

“What happened?” she pointed to the missing eyes.

“My little sister wanted to play with Marisol and I said no. She ran to Papa and he made me hand her over. Lupe was so mad at me at that point that she hurt Mari to punish me. I found the all the parts but could never figure out how to fix the eyes. She’d broken the stem with the sewing hole and glue never worked.”

“Poor Marisol,” Sophie gave the ashta a few loving strokes and then laid her back on top of the bag. He figured she’d go for another toy, continue exploring his past, and was nearly knocked over with the big hug his little bunny hit him with. He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her as she mumbled into his shoulder, “I’m sorry she did that to you Papa.”

“I am too, conejita,” he closed his eyes and settled onto the floor with his back to the bed, “To be fair to Lupe, she was very little when it happened. Younger than you. That destruction was her mimicking what she’d seen.”

“But you didn’t hurt your friends,” Sophie let go and went back to the bag to look at the others, “did you?”

“No,” he watched her as she pulled a stuffed trilobite, red with most of the limbs missing. Her jaw dropped as she looked over the mostly flat friend, her little hands tracing over the places where little legs should be.

“Did tia do this too?” Sophie held old Rio out to him.

He accepted Rio with a sad smile, marveling at just how flat she’d become from all those years in the bottom of that chest. He ran his fingers over the textured fabric before sitting the trilobite on his knees, “no, Lupe was innocent here.”

“What happened?” Sophie asked.

“I made my Papa mad,” he said in a hushed tone, “I was your age. Don’t remember what caused it, not that it matters. But he took Rio’s legs for it. Abuelo Rafa stitched up her body when he got home that night after he couldn’t find her legs.”

“And this one?” she held up a stuffed mossgnath, Paz, the tail and several legs reattached and the neck permanently bend after the foam rod was ripped out.

“Papa,” he admitted.

She sat down next to him with Paz still in her arms and leaned her head against his arm, “and all the other friends in that bag?”

He hugged his little girl tight, his nose buried in her blonde waves as he fought back more tears. She hugged him back, a little hand clinging to his flannel shirt tight. She didn’t need her Papa falling apart, now or ever. He was one of her rocks, a protector, someone who ensured she was safe and happy. It was all in the past anyway, he kept reminding himself as he pushed the painful emotions back into their holes, it shouldn’t hurt anymore.

for something lighter here's some Manny and Cora

Cora turned her body and brought her leg up onto the bale, her shin pressed against Manny’s thigh with her foot playfully hooking the outside of their knee. They placed a hand on her ankle, a subtle smile curling their lip as their cheeks turned red. Cora noted the reaction and tapped her foot against their knee a few times, “so a meeting of the black sheep?”

“Something like that,” Manny nodded, “Without getting into the weeds, Abuela Rosa stole something from her mama while she was on her deathbed. Something that was supposed to go to this cousin’s mother. Apparently Tio Gabi now has this thing. And he wanted to give it to his cousin because it’s technically hers by rights and family tradition. She was touched but refused to take the thing, insisting he keep it.”

“She’s scared of Rosa.”

“Si,” Manny made a face, “and I can’t blame her. Neither can he. She had an idea of what he could do with the thing and even put it in writing but it wasn’t what he’d hoped.”

“He wanted to fix something broken in the family,” Cora said, “wanted to feel like he could right a wrong.”

Manny tapped their index finger against Cora’s calf, “exactly.”

“We should let him know Sophie’s worried about him. He might be able to explain that he wasn’t so much sad as disappointed and that everything’s fine.”

“Good idea,” Manny grinned more openly, “you always know what to do.”

“Not always,” Cora shrugged, “I just get lucky.”

Manny laughed, “don’t be modest, it doesn’t suit you.”

And Del getting gussied up for the big party

He finished buttoning up his collar and carefully tied his red silk bow tie in the mirror, fluffing the loops and smoothing the ends so it looked nice and full for when the guests arrived. He wasn’t sure how long it would last seeing as he made it all of an hour yesterday before he pulled it loose. He was used to a scarf looped loosely around his neck and shoulder, not this thing tied snugly around his throat.

Delgado grabbed his black jacket and shrugged it on, smoothing the lapels and freeing his bow from the collar. He usually hated wearing suits, an early life of being made to dress up for bullshit he didn’t care about coloring his opinion of them, but he had to admit he looked pretty good in the mishmash of late 1800’s Earth fashion. There was more color, patterns, and life to the suit. It didn’t seem to be about being uniform with everyone else like the suits of today and instead allowed a man to express himself.

He walked back over to the desk and picked up the pink silk square, quickly folding it up and tucking it into his jacket pocket. It was funny the little things he retained from his youth, the pocket square folds his abuelo taught him being one of them. He chose a rose fold, a forgiving fold as there were no precise corners that looked like a budding pink rose in his pocket.

#atonalginger writes #fanfic #the coemancer crew #Evgeny Rokov #starfield Delgado #starfield au #many snippets #I probably went overboard #it's what I do...i go overboard

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pico-digital-studios · 2 months ago

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Into, Across and Beyond! Scripting: Allies Alike

After OMT!Tails and SS!Amy managed to evade LM!Sonic's wrath, they emerged in the streets of Moebius's central city.

SS!Amy: Gosh... This place really is a dump.

OMT!Tails: Let's just hurry!

They got moving, though so much had happened earlier - he was devastated by the words LM had said to him, and as he flew, he could barely keep ahead of all the voices in his head.

LM!Sonic: Had you actually BEEN more competent in stopping that Malware Threat, your Sonic would still be alive today! But NO! He had to die trying to save your pathetic hide!

Wacky: Tails, I... The... The hardest thing about being a hero is... you can't always save everybody.

Crimtake: You're going to pay for all you've taken from me.

OMT!Tails: I can do BOTH of those things! A hero of Mobius always-!

CR!Sonic: Not... "always".

LM!Sonic: You don’t belong in this universe. You never did.

Tails leapt out into the open first, only wanting to listen to the one voice in his head he wanted to hear.

OMT!Sally: Keep going for me, Tails.

As he kept moving, he didn't notice a truck speeding by and got hit by it, though thankfully not killed. Once in the clear, he fell to his knees, out of breath from the long run, as SS!Amy caught up.

SS!Amy: Oh, gosh... Are you alright, Tails?

OMT!Tails: I-I'll shake it off. I can't give up now, not when Cream's life is in danger.

As he prepared to dash deeper into the building they were at, Amy caught his hand as he turned back in surprise.

SS!Amy: Y... You're still upset over LM calling you an anomaly... right?

OMT!Tails: *sigh* I am, yeah... It's just awful to have to see one Sonic amongst the many heroic ones treat you as if you should n-never have existed. It... It gives me bad m-memories of when I used to be bullied a lot for my abnormality...

SS!Amy: Honestly, Tails? I've been through that same treatment when I joined the Quill Society. Not from the majority, mind you, but from LM specifically. It must've started after my universe was erased by Finitevus the other day...

OMT!Tails: You got treated as an anomaly, too?

SS!Amy: Yeah...

They sat down on the floor.

SS!Amy: Ever since I joined, LM's always been the one to act like I'm not doing good enough on the job. It's always been "you didn't stop Crimtake when you had the opening back then" or "you think your friends would be proud of you?". He left a sour taste in my mouth, honestly. I scoffed it off, but... I still feel like I don't belong, much less due to my "colour scheme" breaking the boundaries.

OMT!Tails: Guess we're both stuck having to be force-fed LM's lies, huh? For me... I'm just scared that, since time is of the essence, we might not stop Crimtake in time.

SS!Amy: Hey.

She smiled softly to him as she held his hand.

SS!Amy: If I could fight Crimtake in my first crossover incident, and you could easily beat him at his weakest, I'm sure we can both pull it off together.

Tails teared up a bit as she hugged him, which he reciprocated as Anti-Miles and Alicia watched close by.

Anti-Miles: Hey, you two?

They broke the hug when they heard Anti-Miles behind them.

OMT!Tails: Guh-! You again?!

Anti-Miles: We couldn't help overhearing what you were discussing about this "Crimtake" individual.

SS!Amy: You heard all that?

Alicia: Yeah. We saw this strange Sonic figure in the depths of the factory, though he got burned out and is bound for the Emerald reactor in the middle.

OMT!Tails: Right. Thanks for that knowledge. We'll go and deal with him!

SS!Amy: Actually, hold on a moment. We might need a hand to ensure he doesn't escape while we're fighting him. Are you two okay with it?

Alicia: If it's for this Tails's sake, I'm more than happy to help!

She smiled to OMT!Tails, proving her word about feeling sorry for his losses was indeed genuine.

OMT!Tails: What about you, Miles?

Anti-Miles: Dude, don't act like I'm in it for your heroics. This ain't a place where heroics define people-.

Alicia: Miles, just this once, alright? That Quill Society I saw would really appreciate having one less thing on their plate.

Miles sighed in frustration, reluctant to agree.

Anti-Miles: Fine.

OMT!Tails: You'll help out?

SS!Amy: Sweet!

Miles whipped out a cigar as he looked at OMT!Tails.

Anti-Miles: Just don't expect me to help you in stuff like this often. Once you're done here, I want you outta here. This city ain't one for the unprepared.

OMT!Tails: You got it. Once we've neutralised and apprehended Crimtake, we'll be gone in a flash!

Anti-Miles: Good. Now, let's get inside this joint!

The four headed inside to find Crimtake, who was inside the Emerald chamber and awaiting their arrival.

Crimtake: So, you four now wish to play the fine game of nil, even with the odds stacked against you? Hehehehe... See you all soon!

#sonic the hedgehog #sth #sonic exe #sonic #sonic fandom #spider verse #sonic au #sth au #spider man #sonic superstars #sonic origins plus

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jazlynriddle · 18 days ago

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Welcome to your life - Pt 2:

Acting On Your Best Behaviour Ch 21:

Summary:

They'd seen it in their fellow orphans often enough to recognise the pattern and were now forced to admit, despite their hopes to the contrary, that Isidora had likely suffered similar side effects.

No… they'd always known she had. The Keeper had just wanted the power that Ranrok had, enough to convince themselves that they would be able to handle it better than that naive woman.

With the start of the Keeper’s sixth-year in Hogwarts, comes a whole slew of headache-inducing challenges from the most unexpected of places. Between insignificant pests throwing wrenches into their plans and tedious teenage drama, that the Keeper is entirely unprepared for, they wonder if they'll make it to their NEWTs without losing their sanity.

Or worse, Ominis or Sebastian.

Warnings: Sebastian x MC x Ominis! Drug Addiction! Spoilers! Slow-burn corruption! Dark content! Fucked up 1800s orphanages! MC has no love for Anne or Solomon! Dubious happy ending (it's happy for MC, Seb and Ominis at least).

You can also read on AO3! (chapter specific warnings below)

Notes:

The Keeper sipped from their cup of tea as they waited in the common room for Sebastian and Ominis to join them. They were almost regretting agreeing to the plan, it'd been a while since a day had felt quite this long.

Warnings: More misunderstandings-

Ugh, I feel bad doing this to our kids but I really have to, it's just, Ominis and Seb already have HUGE communication problems in their questline and the MC was never helping the boys with that (in fact you can argue that they made it worse in places) so we can assume they suck at it too.

So, I need to hammer those kinks out before it can progress to a healthy relationship. These are just growing pains-

For Poppy and Natty too, honestly, this is a lot of laying groundwork for the girls and the direction that I'm taking them in the future of the story xD

They looked up at the sound of jars breaking that oft signalled someone entering the common room, pleased to see their partners making their way over, though their expressions were worryingly sour.

"Did something bad happen?" The Keeper asked in concern, straightening when Sebastian refused to meet their gaze and setting their teacup on the table.

"Someone dropped a chandelier on us." Ominis replied curtly, as the two boys sat on the bench opposite them.

The Keeper cursed. "Blast, I'd hoped they'd only tried that with Poppy and I."

Sebastian frowned. "Tried what?"

"Our tail dropped a large ceiling fixture on us in Dervish and Banges'. I had to pull Poppy out of the way, she was rather shaken afterwards." The Keeper elaborated, surprised when the boys looked relieved at their words, they had thought that Sebastian and Ominis rather disliked Poppy. Well, it was nice that the two didn't hate her enough to wish Poppy dead, or severely injured at least.

"I see, that's- terrible." Ominis fought to stifle his smile.

"Yes, it was a rather close shave. I'd hoped they would focus on us rather than the two of you." The Keeper grimaced.

"It's alright, Sebastian's quick reflexes saved us, right?" Ominis gave Sebastian what looked like a painful jab in the side with his elbow.

"Urk- Y- yeah. It wasn't that bad." Sebastian rubbed his side. "How was your day with Sweeting?"

"Tiring, she was acting kind of weird today too." The Keeper sighed, picking up their cup and swirling their tea thoughtfully, before shrugging. "Well, Poppy's always been a little odd so it's probably nothing."

Sebastian eyed them sceptically, and the Keeper felt a wave of irritation when he simply looked away a moment later without speaking his thoughts. With a sigh, they decided to ignore him, they were too tired to deal with this and if he had something to say he would spit it out eventually.

"Ominis, I got something for you while in Gladrag's today." Digging through their satchel, the Keeper withdrew their gift.

"Oh? What is it?" Ominis' eyes softened further, and they leaned forward to place the package in his hands.

"Open it and you'll find out." The Keeper grinned as he curiously groped the package, finding the opening and neatly unwrapping it.

Sebastian leaned to the side to peer at it too, as Ominis withdrew the scarf and began to examine it with his hands with a small smile. "Oh, this feels nice, is this Cashmere? Ah, a scarf, how lovely."

"Yes, it's got some shimmery designs on it, so it'll be a good camouflage for the girls in the future." The Keeper explained, pleased when Ominis held it to his chest with a gentle smile.

"You thought of me while with Poppy?" Ominis murmured.

"Of course, why wouldn't I?" The Keeper tilted their head to the side in confusion.

"Thank you…" A brilliant smile lit Ominis’ face, his earlier stiffness completely absent now, and even Sebastian seemed to have relaxed significantly, to the Keeper's relief.

"You are most welcome." The Keeper cleared their throat, fighting the urge to kiss him and contenting themselves with touching the back of his hand gently as they refilled their teacup.

After taking a sip of their tea, the Keeper spoke with a determined set to their gaze. "We just need to endure this nonsense for another three weekends, then we'll be close enough to Selwyn and Macnair’s NEWTs for them to 'run away from the pressure'."

Sebastian's gaze was piercing, and the Keeper wondered what he was looking for, but after a moment, he nodded with an equally resolute fire in his eyes. "We'll get rid of them, and then everything will go back to the way it should be."

"So, how did it go?" The Keeper asked as they slipped into their seat at the Three Broomsticks.

Garreth's face immediately lit up. "Well, we started with Charms first, right before lunch. There's a door that leads to Professor Ronen's office from the roof, there's a weird cell on the landing too, but that's besides the point. So, we took our brooms up there and waited till he left to go to lunch, then Natty remained on the landing while I used Alohomora to ope-"

"You don't need to tell the whole day's story." Natty interrupted with a roll of her eyes. "It went well enough. There were some close calls, but we managed to get four essays from Macnair and three from Selwyn."

"Hopefully that'll be enough." Amit muttered, his voice muffled against the table that his face was firmly planted into. "I don't want to do this any more times than necessary. Thrice is more than enough."

"Hopefully." Natty agreed, before looking over at the Keeper and Poppy. "So, how was it on your end?"

"Our tail tried to drop a ceiling fixture on us." The Keeper nodded towards Poppy, before turning back to Natty with a frown. "As well as Sebastian and Ominis. No one was hurt but it was definitely close."

"I wonder why they're targeting Poppy and Ominis too." Amit wondered aloud, lifting his face from the table and resting it on an arm.

Natty glanced at the Keeper, before shaking her head. "It's pointless to try and figure out what's going on in the minds of jerks."

The Keeper chuckled. "True. It's difficult to win an argument with a smart person, but it's impossible to win an argument with an idiot."

“Oh, that's a pretty good line, I should like to use that in my book.” Amit's eyebrows rose in admiration.

"Well, I lose arguments all the time so I'm definitely not an idiot." Garreth grinned widely and the table fell silent.

He glanced back and forth for a moment. “What are you guys looking at me like that for?”

“Are you sure you're okay after the bullies’ attack?” Natty asked in concern as soon as the door closed behind Amit, leaving Poppy and Natty alone at their table.

“Don't worry, they pulled me out of the way, so it didn't even graze me.” Poppy reassured, before giggling in embarrassment. “It was pretty heroic too, they held me until it was over.”

“I'm glad they care about you so much.” Natty smiled in relief, it was probably a good decision to keep quiet about her guess that the bullies were targeting Poppy because she was important to the Keeper. They might distance themselves from Poppy for her own safety and that would just hurt her.

“Sooooo, how was the actual date?” Natty changed the topic, leaning forward eagerly.

Poppy blushed shyly, shifting slightly in place with a gentle smile. “It… it was pretty nice, they picked a snidget necklace for me and helped me put it on.”

“Aww, that's so sweet, the time they spent with you must mean a lot to them.” Natty giggled in delight. “And then?”

Poppy flashed a more subdued smile. “Well, they seemed pretty uncomfortable with linking arms, it was probably a bit too fast for them.”

“Ah, sorry, I guess I didn't think they were the shy kind.” Natty rubbed the side of her head sheepishly.

“It's alright, I think it wasn’t too bad because they seemed to shake it off afterwards, I also bought a nice dress that they thought looked good on me.” Poppy giggled.

“Told you they'd like seeing you nicely dressed up.” Natty grinned triumphantly.

Poppy nodded. “It was a really nice day, though I think both of us weren't very comfortable in Gladrag's, perhaps next week we can do something more relaxed, I was thinking of hanging around Honeydukes.”

“I see, maybe they'll let you feed them some sweets.” Natty winked, elated when Poppy squirmed adorably. “And now that they've seen you at your prettiest, it's a sight that's sure to stay with them.”

“You're just saying that. I'm nothing special.” Poppy looked away and Natty felt her heart tighten.

“No, I'm not.” Natty took Poppy's hand, driven by the need to convince her friend of how wonderful she was in her eyes. “You were so beautiful yesterday, no one could possibly miss it.”

Poppy's eyes were wide as Natty continued. “You're kind, sweet, gentle, strong, you're amazing and our friend is lucky to have your heart.”

Natty smiled as Poppy's eyes became damp, the girl gripping Natty's hand in return. “Do you really think so?”

“I know so.” Natty nodded confidently, she wanted her friends to be happy and she would put in every effort to make sure they were. “You'll see, next week's going to be even better.”

“She's- she's feeding them!?” Sebastian exclaimed in horror, barely noticing the cluster of girls sitting at the neighbouring table giggling at him as he crushed his napkin in a fist. “I hope her next Bertie Bott's is a bloody vomit flavour.”

“Sebastian!” Ominis scolded in a hushed voice, conscious of the fact that they were sitting at one of the tables outside Steepley and Sons, and Sebastian that was spying on their lover in full view of the public. Ominis didn't particularly care about public appearances but if someone told the Keeper what they'd seen… “Come on, let's stop watching them.”

“What!? How can you even suggest that!?” Sebastian stared at Ominis incredulously.

“Look, they're just being nice and not rocking the boat. We have to trust them.” Ominis replied firmly, rubbing his temples as he spoke, his voice tight with stress.

“Even if you say that, don't you want to know what they're doing?” Sebastian frowned sceptically.

“No, I don’t.” Ominis retorted, his tightly clenched fists trembling under the table.

Sebastian shook his head in disbelief and indignation. “How can you stand not knowing exactly what is going on!? Doesn't it bother you?”

At his incessant badgering and implications, Ominis slammed his hands on the table. “It's because it bothers me! I don't want to imagine it! If I don't know that they look like they're enjoying it, then I can tell myself that they're just doing what they have to, and I can continue trusting them like I said I would.”

Ominis took a few deep breaths to calm himself, running a hand through his hair and smoothing it back down. “If I don't know, it can't hurt me.”

Sebastian remained silent after his explosion and Ominis gritted his teeth in frustration.

With a sigh, Ominis stood from his seat. “I'm going inside. Do what you want.”

“Hang on, Poppy, let me have the first one.” The Keeper placed their hand on her arm. Gently stopping her from popping the bright blue bean, that she'd picked up from the open and exposed sample bowl, into her mouth.

“O- oh, sure.” Poppy's face was light pink, and her hand shook as she extended the bean towards their lips.

The Keeper flashed her a reassuring smile. It was nice of her to worry, but it was the Keeper who the bullies were targeting, so if anyone here should be at risk of poisoning, it was them. They knew their boys would be upset with that mentality, but for the first time, their conscience was being incredibly annoying.

Poppy wasn't like them, if anyone were to truly have the label of ‘innocent’, it would be this girl and she was only in danger because she cared about them. They couldn't repay that purity with callous disregard for her safety.

Besides, as they accepted the bean and began rolling it around in their mouth, the Keeper was likely far better at detecting poisons than she could possibly be. If it was poisoned, they would notice faster.

After rolling it with their tongue for a few seconds, they detected nothing abnormal and bit down, chewing for a moment and allowing the sweet blueberry flavour to spread through their mouth, before tentatively swallowing. They gave Poppy a small nod. “It's good.”

“T- that's great!” Poppy beamed brightly and reached into the dish for another. “Would you like another one?”

“No thanks, but feel free to have some yourself.” The Keeper shook their head, they weren't particularly into Honeydukes sweets. They knew Sebastian liked the excitement and anticipation of randomly getting an unknown flavour however, so they picked up a sealed box from the shelf to purchase on their way out.

“Mmn!” Poppy's face scrunched up and the Keeper felt a jolt of alarm.

“Are you alright?” They asked with a frown, ready to throw the girl over their shoulder and sprint for the infirmary.

“...lemon-” Poppy complained with a pinched expression. “Sour-”

The Keeper relaxed with an aborted eye roll, geez, she shouldn't scare them like that. “Let's try something else then.”

Poppy nodded and the two made their way to another sample bowl. However, as Poppy reached for the candy, through the spaces between each brightly coloured orb, the Keeper spotted a strange black ooze on the bottom of the tray.

They caught her hand again, shaking the bowl around to confirm that it wasn’t just a pattern on the base, before calling out to the shopkeeper. “Excuse me sir, is this meant to look like that?”

The shopkeeper made his way over and peered into the bowl, his expression immediately rather alarmed and embarrassed. “Oh my, how unusual, I do hope neither of you have eaten any of these?”

“Not a bite.” The Keeper reassured as he sniffed the bowl with a disgusted expression.

“Oh, thank heavens. I apologise for the mishap and thank you for bringing it to my attention, I shall fetch a new bowl right away!” The shopkeeper collected the contaminated bowl, waved his wand, summoned a new clean bowl from the counter, and opened a sealed box of candy to fill the new vessel. “There you go, I do hope you enjoy it and consider purchasing!”

The man smiled amicably and left the two to continue making their way around the shop.

“Wow, how did you even notice that?” Poppy asked, her eyes wide with admiration.

The Keeper raised an eyebrow, not entirely sure what she was asking. “The bottom was a different colour from the sides.”

“Ah, yes, I suppose that makes sense.” Poppy smiled nervously.

The atmosphere became oddly uncomfortable again and the Keeper internally sighed, why was this so different from their usual interactions? They had thought that spending time with Poppy would entail their usual hangouts at Brood and Peck, discussing magical beasts or even hanging out with Highwing. They sighed, wondering why this time was different from when they were suffering withdrawal.

If they'd known their Saturdays with her would be this awkward, they probably wouldn't have agreed to the plan.

Seeking to dispel said awkwardness, the Keeper pointed at a nearby sample bowl. “Have you tried those before?”

“Oh, I don't think so.” Poppy's eyes brightened and she drifted over to the indicated bowl to investigate it.

As Poppy busied herself trying the strange sweets, the Keeper scanned the neighbouring sample bowls for tampering, before noticing the poster featuring Fizzing Whizzbees on sale.

Huh. They didn't like admitting it, but they'd been experiencing a fair amount of stress when flying since the whole Selwyn broom incident. Perhaps they could run some tests to see if this candy might work for slowing one's fall. If it did, having some of this candy in their pockets would help with that annoying fear.

The Keeper picked up a box from the shelf to add to their purchases, cradling the two boxes in their arms and finding a spot of wall to lean against while Poppy watched some floating doxy floss.

Finding themselves incredibly bored with nothing left to do, the Keeper began entertaining themselves by imagining Sebastian holding the two bullies under the cruciatus for putting them through all of this tedium.

Thinking about that unforgivable however, the Keeper was reminded of how it had felt when the boy had cast it on them in the Scriptorium and how curious that experience had been, it'd hurt certainly, excruciatingly so, but it hadn't hurt. They'd seen the agony their enemies had suffered when under their own wand and knew that Sebastian's cast on themselves had been nowhere near as potent.

The Keeper hadn’t even collapsed or passed out like Natty had, merely made weak in the knees by the comparably measly amount of pain he'd inflicted, they almost considered the experience fondly now. After all, it wasn’t as though Sebastian couldn't cast it properly, he'd certainly put the spell to good use against the goblins.

They wondered if he'd cast it again on them if they asked.

The Keeper paused, what an odd thought, wanting to be hurt by their partner. Perhaps it had more to do with the lovely expression he'd wear when inflicting pain on his foes? Their mind helpfully conjured memories of Sebastian during their hunts, that flush of red high on his cheekbones, his pupils dilated and that wide grin.

Failing to encourage some enthusiasm from her companion over the sweets, Poppy bit her lip nervously and spoke up. “Would you like to visit Zonko's?”

The Keeper blinked, and quickly dispelled their... wandering thoughts, replying with a simple. “Sure.”

Poppy withheld a sigh as the Keeper made their way to the counter to make their purchases. Her companion had been rather distant today, perhaps they just weren't one for the more popular date activities. She thought back to their adventures hunting down poachers and rescuing beasts, that had been the most engaged and excited she'd ever seen them.

Perhaps she should try something less conventional next weekend…

The Keeper frowned in concern when, once again, Sebastian and Ominis returned to the common room with sour expressions, this time with a tense atmosphere hanging between them as well.

“What's wrong?” The Keeper asked as Sebastian flopped onto the couch opposite them and Ominis sat down beside the Keeper.

“Nothing.” Sebastian muttered, dropping his head backwards against the backrest.

The Keeper eyed him flatly, raising an eyebrow. “Yeah, sure, I believe you.”

“Don't mind him. He's just being ridiculous.” Ominis’ eyes were narrow and his lips thin.

Sebastian shot him a glare and the Keeper asked again. “About what?”

“Like he said, I'm just being ridiculous.” Sebastian reiterated with another glare at Ominis, who stiffened at his tone.

With a sigh, the Keeper shook their head. What was wrong with everyone lately? It felt like no one was actually talking to them and it was getting incredibly annoying. They ran a hand through their hair tiredly, not much they could do when they didn't even know where to start figuring out what was going on and they were so bloody exhausted after another long awkward day with Poppy.

Between the constant trap dodging and studying during the weekdays for their year-end exams, the Keeper was more tired than they'd been since the whole pain energy withdrawal debacle.

“Guys, you're supposed to be enjoying your time together. It's just another weekend before I can spend Saturdays with the two of you again.” The Keeper tried, they knew both boys were stubborn, and they didn't much like it when the two were at odds.

“You sure you want to?” Sebastian asked in a strange tone, tilting his head down to look at them.

“Sebastian.” Ominis’ tone was warning, and the Keeper felt mildly irritated at him, clearly Ominis was one of the reasons Sebastian wasn't talking. Was he just disapproving of Sebastian's attitude? Or was Ominis trying to keep him quiet? But what reason could Ominis possibly have to silence Sebastian? It was certainly concerning.

The Keeper really wanted to just ask what Ominis was thinking, but they knew that if they asked that, Ominis would get defensive and upset. Yet if they pretended nothing was wrong, Sebastian would get more upset, and they didn't like that either. Oh, the struggles of juggling two partners- but that's what they signed up for and they needed to do something to help regardless of how tired they were.

“I do. Of course, I do, what on earth would make you think otherwise?” The Keeper frowned, taking out the box of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans and throwing it at Sebastian. “Here, I got this to share with you, so stop sulking.”

He jumped as the box hit him on the chin and tumbled into his lap, where he fumbled to catch it before it bounced all the way to the floor.

“Haven't you already had your fill of sweets today?” Sebastian grumbled as he glared down at the box.

“Not really, I had Poppy give me one when sampling from the bowl but didn't eat any more after that.” The Keeper shook their head, since when was Sebastian health conscious? They'd expected that question from Ominis.

“Huh? Why only one?” Sebastian looked confused.

“To test for poison, of course. I managed to catch one spiked bowl later, so it was probably a wise decision.” The Keeper shrugged, and while Sebastian looked surprised, Ominis frowned.

“You'd endanger yourself for Sweeting?” His pale eyes narrowed.

The Keeper felt a wave of relief, finally someone acting as expected, they placed a hand over Ominis’, squeezing it slightly as they reassured him. “Don't worry, I was fairly confident that it wasn’t poisoned, and Poppy is only in danger on my account, it wouldn't be very nice of me to throw her under the carriage.”

Ominis looked oddly conflicted as he replied. “I suppose that is rather honourable of you…”

The Keeper frowned, they'd thought he'd be proud of them, wondering why he still seemed upset, when Sebastian stood and moved to sit on the other side of the Keeper, holding up a single bean between his thumb and forefinger.

“Say ah.” Sebastian's tone was more akin to an order than a request and the Keeper stifled their amusement.

“Ah…” They opened their mouth obediently and allowed him to place the bean on their tongue, feeling the pad of his finger drag along the wet muscle as he withdrew his hand.

“One last Saturday.” Sebastian mumbled, his eyes lingering on their lips as they chewed the cinnamon bean, anxiety and frustration roiling in his stomach. I guess I can endure till then.

“Aren't you going to follow them?” Ominis muttered, burying his face deeper in the scarf the Keeper had gifted to him, despite the weather being nowhere near cool enough for one. He didn't care about the growing dampness against his collar, it was well worth the heat and discomfort, to have it wrapped around him.

A comforting reminder of the Keeper's affection, as he forced himself not to think about them frolicking through the forest, hand in hand with Sweeting. His imagination spurred on by the glimpse his wand sight had given him, of her taking the Keeper by the hand, laughing, and leading them out of Hogsmeade. Fiercely fighting off the urge to cry as he waited for Sebastian to leave his side too.

Sebastian remained silent for a few moments, observing his lover, before taking Ominis’ hand in his under their table. It was almost more upsetting, that Ominis was also clearly distressed, and Sebastian had no idea how to solve any of this.

He'd been so caught up with airing his own frustrations the last two Saturdays, that he'd made things more painful for his equally upset boyfriend. It had taken a few days of stewing through the mire of anger, frustration and anxiety fogging up his brain, before Sebastian eventually decided that, while he still had no idea what to actually do, he could at least try to comfort Ominis.

Sebastian had considered many times, simply asking the Keeper if they liked Poppy, but he was so afraid of the answer, afraid that words wouldn't be enough, that every time they expressed confusion, he found himself choking on the words. Fear clogging his throat, quickly followed by anger and frustration, directed more at himself than them, for being so… aarrrrrgh-

Sebastian closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The three of them had gone through so much together, seen each other at their best and at their worst, their most vulnerable and exposed, but what if that wasn't enough?

He'd believed that Anne would always understand him, always care about him, always be on his side and by his side. They were twins, they were once one person, practically able to guess each other's thoughts and execute plans in perfect synchronisation without any prior communication.

Every other relationship had no such guarantee, friends came and went, interests caught his fancy and then lost it, not even his parents were an exception.

Even Ominis, the most beautiful and elegant boy that Sebastian's eleven-year-old country bumpkin self had ever seen. Despite how close they'd become over the years and how Anne would tease him mercilessly whenever she caught him staring, a part of Sebastian never even bothered to hope that their relationship could ever become as strong as his twin bond.

He'd never have risked his relationship with Ominis by showing the Undercroft to the Keeper, or pushed Ominis so hard about the Scriptorium for Anne, if he'd known that Ominis would prove to be so deeply bound to him. Though in retrospect, he wouldn't have found that out without straining their friendship in the first place.

He'd been so sure that his bond with Anne was stronger than anything. Born together, live together, die together. She was a part of him, wasn't she?

He'd been proven wrong.

She'd chosen their inexplicably, perpetually angry, and hurtful uncle instead. In fact, her loyalty to him was so much stronger than it was to Sebastian, that she remained faithful to Solomon even after the man was dead.

If he'd been so horribly wrong then, how could Sebastian be sure he wasn't wrong again now?

Sebastian squeezed Ominis’ hand tightly, unable to do any more despite how deeply he wanted to, he couldn’t even find the words to comfort himself right now, let alone someone else.

A moment later, Sebastian felt Ominis squeeze back, relief plain in his pale eyes. Knowing that his solidarity brought Ominis some measure of comfort, eased some of the tightness in Sebastian's chest. Now, all they could do was wait and see.

And that was probably the most painful thing on earth.

Notes:

I wanted to draw a parallel at the end of this chapter with how during the game, Sebastian left Ominis to worry on his own while chasing a cure for Anne (aka a cure for his fears), this time, Sebastian suppresses his own desire to assuage his own fears to stay with Ominis. In a more selfless act of love.

It also bugged me that Sebastian told us about the Undercroft even though he didn't have any reason to think we could help him with Anne till we visited her. So, my theory is that he's always ready to lose anyone besides Anne since she's the only constant in his life.

Growing up is a struggle to find methods of coping. Coping with the fear of loss that comes with the encroaching understanding of how easy it is to lose everything you hold dear.

Sebastian already has one sword of Damocles hanging over his head, from Anne's imminent agonising death, it would be even more difficult for him to cope with an additional sword in the form of the constant fear of losing your partner.

Even more painful when it's two partners, twice the vulnerability and fear ha ha ha…

But that's the reality of having two partners, you need twice the amount of constant communication and effort. As someone who was in a three-way polyamorous relationship for three years, I can attest to that xD (my still remaining partner and I's third partner decided that our relationship was taking too much effort and he left us on reasonably amicable terms)

Despite wanting to write realistically, I love my happy endings and these kids are lucky to have each other, they just need to get some hard knocks to learn how to cope and support each other more sustainably. And it's a fictional story so of course I'm gonna make it dramatic, exciting and *hint hint* sexy x)

I also believe that, while a lot of people feel shame for it, there's nothing wrong with hitting a deficiency meltdown, it just means you've discovered a particular need that has been going unsustained and now you can work together to find a way to fulfil it. If both/all parties involved have the determination to work hard to make things work, it'll work out. That's how I see it at least xD

Holy shit these are some long notes-

Also props to anyone who catches the quote from Ruffnut xP

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